Artemis the Assassin
by badwlf7
Summary: One shot Slight AU post Season 2 pre Season 3 where Cheshire makes an offer Artemis can't refuse.


Artemis brought back the bolt of her rifle, it was heavier than her bow by a few pounds but she had to admit the few magazines she'd brought with her weighed less than her quiver. On a normal mission she'd check in with the team before loading the rifle, on a normal mission her team would have her back. She sighed as she carefully let the bolt go forward so as not to make a sound. This wasn't a normal mission. This was her first assassination.

I

_Two days ago_

"I'm sorry Mrs. Crock but we can't offer another extension, I'm afraid that—"

"Oh you better be _afraid_! You think you can just kick people out of their homes with no _consequences_!" Artemis slammed the phone into the receiver again and again till its plastic shattered. She shook her hand out as she realized the plastic had scraped through the skin on her knuckles. _Great._ She blinked away the burning in her eyes as her dog cocked his head at her and whimpered. "It's fine Brucely…" She sniffled and grabbed the dish towel off the stove to cover her bloodied knuckles. She sat down at the kitchen table and took a deep breath. _It would be fine…_ Artemis looked across at the only other chair at the table, Wally's chair, where he should've been sitting telling her to relax. _Then you'd pull off some scheme or sell your bike and you'd tell me it's all going to be okay. _She began to sob into her arms at the table, Wally would never be there to tell her it would be okay ever again.

"Rough day Sis?"

Artemis jumped from her chair at the voice, her heart raced as she scanned around for the source of the voice she recognized all too well. But her kitchen was empty, she kept scanning as she walked backwards to the counter and swiped the biggest knife she could find off it. _Am I going crazy? _

"You're not going crazy just put the knife down…"

"Cheshire?" Artemis kept the knife at the ready.

Artemis' sister rolled her eyes and reached down and twisted the belt buckle on her uniform turning off her active camouflage. She slowly appeared. "We _are_ sisters Artemis, you don't have to call me Cheshire. Or should I just call you Tigress from now on."

"Nice tech…" Artemis was on high alert immediately, not every day you get a house call from an Assassin. Even if she was her sister Cheshire was not someone to be underestimated.

"Thanks, not even Batman has it yet." Cheshire smiled behind her already grinning mask.

"Why are you here." Artemis dropped the knife on the counter _It would actually be a mercy if she was here to kill me. _

"Well I have an opportunity for you." She said it slowly as Artemis brushed the tears off her face.

"No." She replied immediately.

"You don't even know what I was going to say." Cheshire rolled her eyes behind her mask.

"Leave." Artemis considered grabbing the knife off the counter.

"How much do you owe on this place? Hundred thousand?"

"LEAVE!" Artemis screamed.

"How would you like to make ten million dollars?" Cheshire asked, watching with satisfaction as she saw her sister's face hesitate. _Got her._

"Get out." Artemis demanded softer than she wanted.

Her sister smiled and pulled out a card from her uniform. "Offer expires at midnight. Think about it Sis. Ten _million_, no questions asked no follow up work." She flicked the card through the air and twisted her belt buckle disappearing and walking out the door leaving it open behind her.

Artemis sighed and walked over to the door to close it. "You don't deserve that tech!" She screamed out side before slamming the door. _Smooth, really burned her with that one. _She rolled her eyes at herself. She took one glance at the card as it sat on the table where Cheshire had thrown it. _No._

I

"So, enjoying my boat Chesh?"

"Talia my dear, this is a ship." Jade Nguyen spoke into a satellite phone as she sat sunning herself on a deck chair. She couldn't remember the last time she wore a bikini but the sun felt too good to wear anything else.

"Champagne?"

Jade smiled at the handsome butler who seemed to know exactly what she wanted. "Leave the bottle." She waited for the butler to leave and watched the bubbles in the glass. "You know this is almost nice enough to make me want to retire."

"We both know you're not the retiring type, speaking of, have you figured out how to be in two places at once yet?" Talia asked over the phone.

"I think I've got that one figured out, just waiting for another call." Jade sipped at her champagne and sighed letting herself relax for once.

"I'll leave you to it, the chef's filet mignon is to die for by the way."

Jade hung up without saying goodbye, a nice bloody steak did sound just perfect for dinner. The ship she was on was the most opulent experience she'd ever had and she wanted to enjoy every moment. She looked down to see if the various scars on her body were tanning with the rest of her skin. She frowned to see them slightly paler than the rest. _Assassin problems I guess. _It took two more glasses of champagne for the phone to ring again. She let it ring a few times before hitting the talk button. "I almost thought you'd turn me down."

"I still want to."

Jade rolled her eyes. "And yet here we are, you know if you'd accepted earlier I could've taken you on a yacht."

"Just…what do I have to do?"

Her big sister smiled. "Artemis, it's time you joined the family business. Have you ever heard of Yuri Burmakin?"

"Should I have?"

Jade shrugged. "I suppose not, let me rephrase that, were you paying attention to the nerve gas attack in central Rhelasia?"

"I thought that was the League of shadows?"

"It _was_, but Yuri Burmakin made the VR nerve agent that w-they used." She spoke into the phone imagining her little sister's reaction to all this. "He decided to double cross the league and start his own manufacturing plant in Central America for a local terrorist group."

"Annnd you want me to destroy the plant?"

"Don't be ridiculous, I want you to kill him." Cheshire felt her sister's hesitation through the phone. "The terrorist group he's making the nerve gas for is planning to attack an international school where their country's dictator's children attend, within the next month. As it so happens if you terminate Mr. Burmakin, their plans fall apart."

"What's the catch?"

"There's no catch, kill a very evil man, save some kids, and make _ten million dollars_."

"Okay…"

_Is she crying?_ "Okay what?" She heard her clear her throat.

"I'll kill him."

I

Artemis jumped out of the plane, normally she'd enjoy the rush of falling towards the earth but she hadn't been able to enjoy anything on this trip. The jungle was slowly rushing up to meet her as she fell forward closer and closer to her drop zone. She checked her altimeter and yanked her rip chord. Artemis had always hated the instant summersault her stomach did when the parachute deployed. Quickly she pulled the release strap on the small equipment bag between her legs and began to steer her parachute. Jungle landings were inherently dangerous with the almost uninterrupted canopy of branches leaves and wildlife to land in. Thankfully there was a clearing not too far from her. She felt her equipment bag hit the ground and start to drag moments before she hit the ground with a thud crumpling into a roll and disconnecting her parachute. Working quickly and already feeling the jungle heat she folded up her parachute and shouldered her equipment bag. Artemis was in the cover jungle canopy in a matter of seconds. Putting her equipment bag on a tree she pulled out her canteen and her sidearm. The jungle was already suffocating her with heat and noise. The pistol in her hand and the rifle stowed in her bag were provided by her sister. While she was no stranger to them it'd been years since she held a gun of her own in her hands. The rest of the gear was strange to her, her sister had given her a black pair of cargo pants and a camouflage top, with strict instructions not to wear anything related to Tigress or her team. She felt naked without her bow, but all the same she chambered a round in her pistol, checked her map and set off. Moving in such dense jungle in intense heat slowed her progress and she guzzled her water every time she stopped. The noise was constant, like a ringing in her ear she could never silence. Bugs, birds, snakes, even the occasionally monkey scurrying over head and screaming at the top of its lungs.

It was beginning to remind her of Santa Preisca, _god what a cluster fuck that was…_ she stopped her nostalgia as the memory of Wally in his souvenir beret surfaced. _I'm sorry babe._ Artemis looked down at the pistol in her hands that was dripping with her sweat. _I'm so sorry. _

I

Yuri Burmakin was not a bad man, or so he believed. He was born in the city of Pripyat in the former Soviet Union, his father and mother worked at the nuclear plant of Chernobyl. When the city was evacuated his family lost everything, but with his father's tutoring He became a prodigy in the field of chemistry. A chemist in the early 90's especially in Russia was never short of work. He'd started working on vaccines and cures, but with the government and the mob offered him more money than he could count to make what they desired he couldn't say no. The work with the Russian mob was dirtier than he liked, he'd spend all day working in a lab, then go home and watch his work on the evening news.

He'd moved his lab to central America to move away from the terrorism side of his work. The guerrilla fighters he was working for there still killed people, but they weren't likely to ever make the news. He could get paid a king's ransom, live in the lap of luxury in his guarded compound, and not see his toxins and nerve agents killing children and families. Yuri Burmakin didn not believe he was a bad man, he also wouldn't have believed that he was going to die that day.

I

Artemis brought back the bolt of her rifle, it was heavier than her bow by a few pounds but she had to admit the few magazines she'd brought with her weighed less than her quiver. On a normal mission she'd check in with the team before loading the rifle, on a normal mission her team would have her back. She sighed as she carefully let the bolt go forward so as not to make a sound. This wasn't a normal mission. This was her first assassination. When her father had trained her she'd always assumed she'd kill. Most of her mother's stories revolved around assassinations with the gory details kept out of it for younger Artemis' sake. Though she never imagined be in the rain soaked jungle for her first. Thankfully the equipment bag her sister had supplied her with came with a camouflage gortex rain jacket. The jacket had kept her upper body and rifle mostly dry, her legs and boots were soaked however. She looked through the scope and scanned the compound. Her sister had told her that it was a mansion, which as she saw through the scope was a bit of an understatement. The opulent main building was three stories tall with huge windows, it sat in the center of a well kept lawn surrounded by tall stone wall. Through one of the windows on the second story she could see her target. Yuri Burmakin was sitting on his sofa reading a book. The scope was high powered enough to see that he was a balding man in his late forties wearing a green sweater and slacks, he read his book through a pair of silver rimed glasses resting far forward on his narrow nose. She focused, lining the cross hairs just at the base of his neck, she took a deep breath. Her finger was shaking. Every ounce of her body was screaming at her. _If I had any other choice._ Artemis felt her eyes fill with tears. She fired.

I

Jade Nguyen sat on one of the chairs at a corner cafe on one of the busier streets in Paris. While she wished she was still on Talia Al Ghul's yacht she couldn't complain about the delicious breakfast sandwich and quaintness of the café. As she finished up her sandwich she saw her sister from a mile away even in the crowd. Unlike her sister she'd taken care to wear a ball cap and large sunglasses to at least attempt to hide her face. Jade flagged down the waiter and ordered a cookie for her sister, equal parts condescending and caring. "You know Sis that blonde hair is going to get you killed one day."

"Well at least now I deserve it." Artemis sat down next to her sister and immediately frowned at the cookie.

"Oh don't act like that, for your first—"

"_And last._"

Jade rolled her eyes. "You did exceptionally well, I'm proud of you."

Artemis ate the cookie begrudgingly not making eye contact. "I need the money Jade."

"You already have it." Jade smiled, I transferred enough to float you for a year or two into your account, the rest is in the Cayman Islands, you just need this." She handed her an envelope from her jacket. "Account number, credit card, and all the details. I wouldn't use that card however, who knows who could be watching it."

Artemis looked at the envelope like it was poison. "I should feel bad…"

"Why, Because you killed someone who _deserved_ it? Or because those idiot friends of yours say so?" Jade snarked. "Face it Sis, if they had the same choice you had they'd do the exact same thing."

"I somehow doubt Nightwing will be past due on his mortgage." Artemis slumped in her chair.

"That's the beauty of it Sis!" Jade stood and held her arms out. "Now you're rich too." Jade turned to leave. "Oh and if you ever want anymore work."

"I will never work for you again."

"Never say never Sis, _Au revoir._"

Artemis watched her sister disappear into the crowd, she tried for a while to hold it together. She'd been trying since the jungle to get the image out of her head, but Yuri Burmakin's death was replaying constantly every time she shut her eyes. She started to sob clutching the envelope her sister had given her.


End file.
